Blossoming Love
by Ehskey
Summary: One Shot story about an unknown possible love between two blonds.


Naruto: Blossoming Love

Sitting underneath a tree, Naruto was eating his most favorite food in the world, Ramen. After training with his team or coming back from a mission he would always go to the Ichiraku Ramen Bar and occasionally he would order his food to go and he would take it up to this hill he had found and he would eat it underneath a tree that sat on the very top of it. It was one of his most favorite spots to go to, because it had a good over view of the village and it was a nice place just to take a nap and not have anyone bother you. Finishing the last of his noodles, he brought the bowl up to meet his lips and drank the last of its fluids (Usually people would sip on the fluid content, but to Naruto it was more like drinking flavored water).

As he brought the bowl down he exhaled heavily. "Ah, that was good!" he said, smiling from ear to ear.

Placing the bowl down on the grass he noticed something in the distance, a girl, she had long blond hair and was wearing an orange dress, not like an formal dress, but just like the ones you would wear on a hot summer day. Curious as to who the girl was, he picked up the bowl and shoved it into his bag and slung it over his shoulder and made his way down the hill. Getting closer he could hear the sound of humming, then as he got closer it stopped and the girl turned around to see her guest.

"Uh... Naruto-kun?" the girl said, surprised at the sight of him.

"Ino-chan?" he said in the similar surprised tone. "Didn't know that was you down here. I couldn't tell since your hair wasn't in a pony-tail." he said as he pointed at her hair.

"Yea," she started, as she scratched the back of her head where she would usually have her hair in a pony tail, "Lost my scrunchy the other day."

It was rare for her to wear her hair down like the way it was now. Most people have never even seen her hair down and truth be told, she liked it not being all tied up, but it was always a such hassle for her to keep it down and looking nice, so she would just tie it up into a pony tail, it was much easier and it helped her stay cooler during the hotter days.

"Oh." Was all Naruto said and the both of them stood there in awkward silence. He kind of just stood there still staring at her hair not noticing that Ino's cheeks were slowly turning into a soft rosy-pink color.

"What the hell are you staring at!" she finally yelled,breaking the uncomfortable silence and Naruto's gaze at her. Making her hands into fists she shook her right fist in front of his face.

Naruto scratched his cheek with his index finger and darted his eyes to something else other than her. "Nothing. I was just looking at the...uhm... uhm."

Ino tapped her foot impatiently waiting for his excuse.

Naruto looked at the surroundings behind her and several words ran through his mind. _Bush? Tree? The Sky? Bird? Squirrel? _Then he saw a small patch of flowers and grinned.

"Uh, I was looking at those flowers." he stated, pointing behind her to the small patch of flowers.

She turned around and turned back to him, "Yea, yea, _sure."_

His face turned into a blank stare, his eyes closed and his hands went behind his head. "What else would I be looking at then?" he asked, trying to make it sound like he wasn't staring at her.

A vein formed at the side of her forehead at his remark. She had always considered herself to be one of the most beautiful young kunoichi the leaf village had to offer and she took it as an insult of being 'ugly'. Her hands, still which were still fists, lay at her sides. "What are you getting at Naruto?" she said through gritting teeth.

"Nothing." said Naruto, who was now confused.

The next thing Naruto saw was stars as he stood dazed by the hit. She hit surprisingly stronger than Sakura, thought Naruto as he fell face forward to the ground.

Ino turned her back on the lifeless Naruto and got on her knees and stared at the flowers for a moment and started picking the ones she needed.

Naruto awoke from the hit, still a bit dazed, stood up and had trouble balancing at first, but had it under control. "What the hell was that for?" he asked, rubbing his head where he got hit.

"Because your an idiot." she said as she continued to pick the flowers and put them in the basket that lay next to her.

Stepping next to her he sat down and watched as she picked the flowers.

Putting flowers in the basket she caught Naruto watching her.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"I think its pretty obvious, even for some one like you."

His eyes narrowed in on her, annoyed that she had made him look more retarded than he actually was. "I know what your doing, but _why_ are you doing it?"

She looked into his eyes and saw that he wasn't playing around, she could see his curiosity at what she was doing and decided to tell him so that maybe, hopefully, he would loose interest and leave her in piece. "Because my dad wanted these. And so thats why I'm here." She said as she stood up with her basket which dangled on her arm.

Naruto stood up with her. "Why does your dad want flowers?"

Ino was now getting annoyed with all the questions and started walking to an area she knew around here that had the last of flowers she needed. "Naruto, has it ever occurred to you that my family might own the 'Yamanaka Flower Shop'."

"You own a flower shop?"

"Are you serious?" she asked, not believing him.

"Uhm."

"It only has my last name in it, how could you not know that?"

"I dunno, I guess I never knew your last name until now."

Just by the face he was wearing she could tell he was being for real, but she was kind of having a hard time believing that he didn't know her last name since they have known each other for quite some time now and just about everyday back in the academy when they took roll they always said full names, but she guessed she shouldn't be that surprised seeing it as that Naruto was always slacking off or sleeping during school.

"Well anyways, yea, I don't own it, yet. It's a family business, and my grandma helps me and my dad run it."

"What about your mom?" he asked. He stopped walking when he noticed Ino had stopped. "Ino-chan?"

In that moment he knew he shouldn't have asked that as he saw her face sadden.

"She, uh," the words got stuck in her throat, but managed to get them out. "She died back when I was real young." she said as she stared at the grass underneath her feet.

"Oh... I'm sorry." Said Naruto trying to sound as passionate as he could.

Ino looked up and put on a faint smile, "It's alright."

_Damnit why'd I ask that?_ Thought Naruto as he just watched her as she brushed past him, wondering if he should keep walking with her or just go back home. He figured he had nothing else to do back at home and he felt kinda bad for making her sad now, so he caught up to her and walked at her pace.

Ino watched the blond haired boy as he walked along with her at the corner of her eyes. At the moment she was a bit upset and mad that he had brought up her mother and thinking why he was still walking with her. Knowing it wasn't his fault for not knowing about her mother she got over it relatively quick, but the image of her mom was now implanted in the back of head and couldn't stop thinking about her. As they came to a stop they had reached their, or originally her, destination.

Naruto stood in awe at the site of the field of flowers that swayed in motion with the wind. There was a vast majority of different colored flowers spread out across the acre of land that was surrounded by hills. Leaves floated in the air and the sight of the now receding sun behind the hills was cool to Naruto. He took in the site, enjoying the beautiful view of the warm orange colored sunset.

Ino gazed at Naruto as his hair blew back in forth with the wind. The soft colors of the sunset reflecting against his hair making it seem more of a golden brownish color. She felt an all too familiar warm feeling rise in her cheeks as she found herself staring at Naruto. Seeing his lips curve into a small grin she looked away.

_What the hell was that?_ She thought to herself. _I couldn't... stop looking at him... No no no no!_ She yelled mentally as she shook her head trying to clear her thoughts.

Naruto looked over at the other blond who's cheeks were a deep red rosy color and was shaking her head vigorously. "Whats wrong?" he asked, worried that he might of done something else that might of made her the way she was right now.

"Uh nothing, nothing. I'd better hurry up before the sun goes down, or ill have to come back tomorrow." she said as she made her way into the field of flowers.

"I hope your only looking for a certain kind of flower." said Naruto as he continued to gaze over the field.

"Yea." she said as she began searching through the flowers.

"Well what kind? I might be able help you out."

She arched her eyebrow in interest. "What?"

"I said I might be able to help-"

"No, I know what you said, but you actually knowing something?" She said in between laughs. "And it's flowers?"

"I know some stuff." he said, criss crossing his arms. "I used to have a garden..."

"_Used_ to?"

Naruto didn't feel like telling the story on how he had killed his garden and humiliating himself so he changed the subject back. "Do you want my help or what?"

She laughed at his hostility and put a finger on her chin. "Sure." she said smiling. "Do you know what an Dahlia is?"

"Uhm..." he hummed, trying to get an idea as to what it would probably look like.

"Of course not." she said disappointed. She knew she shouldn't have gotten her hopes up, but of course again this is Naruto who were talking about here. Reaching into her basket she dug around for a moment and pulled out a flower that fit perfectly in her hand. "Guess it was a good thing I brought this along then." she mumbled.

"Come here." she demanded as she held out the small bushy flower.

Naruto did as told and trampled through flowers to get to her. He took the flower from her and held it in his hand, staring at it, fascinated by the colors it had. Each petal was pointed and had its own gradation of color, light pink at the tips and gradually melting away into a bright creamy yellow in the middle.

"So this what they all look like?" he asked, twisting and turning the flower making observations before he went on the hunt.

"Well they all range from different heights, sizes, and colors, but I don't really care about the color, but the size needs to be just as big as the one your holding or just a little bigger."

"Alright! Lets do this!" he yelled excitedly, making a hand seal and trying not to ruin the flower he held in his hand he did his most favored jutsu. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"

About thirty copies of Naruto materialized from smoke and they all huddled close to the original. "Alright so we need to find as many of these," he said holding it up and then passing it along with his copies, "flowers for Ino-chan." All thirty Naruto's smiled gleefully as they all ran out about the field searching for the Dahlia's.

Ino watched in awe at the thirty Naruto's as they searched through the field, she never knew he could use so many shadow clones at once, and the one time she had ever seen him actually attempt at a clone was when Iruka made every body do the transformation technique because he had painted over the Hokage's faces. What she saw that day had lowered her self esteem for a bit, but it eventually recovered over a short time into what it was now. All ways worrying about her appearance and making sure she loosing weight by dieing so that she would be more attractive than other girls.  
That, she guessed, was the only good thing he had done for her and he didn't know about it. Other than that she just thought of him as the hyper active idiot that he is, but she found that her perspective of him was slowly changing.

"Found one!" yelled one of Naruto's clones and shortly after that there were similar outbursts of joy across the field.

After about ten minutes there was big pile of Dahlia's sitting next to Ino.

"Uh Naruto."

Thirty Naruto's stopped what they were doing and thirty heads were now looking at her. "Whats up Ino-chan?" they all asked in unison.

_Freaky._ She thought, "Uhm I think thats enough Dahlia's." she said as she pointed towards the pile next to her which was about as tall as herself.

"Oh."

POOF. POOF. POOF. POOF. POOF. POOF. POOF.

They Naruto army disappeared with the white smoke and the original one fell butt first to the ground. He looked at his work and scratched his nose. "Guess I went a bit over board huh?"

"Yea you did." she said as she started to fill her basket with the different colored Dahlia's. "I wasn't expecting that there would be this many Dahlia's here." she said, testing the weight of the basket.

"Sorry bout' that." he said smiling.

"Don't be. I have more than I wanted and we could use the extra for the shop." She said as she tossed a Dahlia at him.

"We?" he asked, confused at the we part.

"Do you have a job?" she asked with a smirk.

"Of course I do."

"What? I'm dying to hear this." she said as she put one hand on her hip. "Go on."

Naruto put his hands behind his neck and let himself fall backwards so that he was staring at the orange sky. "I'm a ninja of course. And one day," he sat back up with his legs criss crossed, "I'll be the greatest Hokage!"

Ino rolled her eyes at his 'Hokage' statement as she always did when ever she heard him say it.

"Baka. I'm talking about when your not out on a mission. Sort of like ah... part time job."

"A part time job?" he repeated.

"So how bout' it?"

Naruto thought about it for a second. "No thanks Ino-chan."

"Why not? I could use the extra help."

_She's being awful nice for some reason._ Thought Naruto. Usually she one of the kids always making fun of him. "I'm always training and stuff. I have no time for that kind of stuff."

_What the hell? How can he just shoot me down like that? I'm Ino Yamanaka the-... _she paused for a moment re-thought what she had just mentally said and slapped herself mentally. _Why did I offer him a job? Worst of all why did I get upset at him rejecting it?_ She was starting to get an headache with all this thinking. Right now all she really wanted to do was just to go home and sleep.

"Okay, well, thanks for your help Naruto, I'm gonna get going now." she said as she waved and turned her back on him.

"Huh? Where you going?"

She stopped and turned around, "I have to drop these off," she said raising the basket, "at the shop and then I'm gonna go home. Why?"

"Your not going to watch the sun set?" he said, pointing out above the hills where the sun was still seeable.

She looked to where he was pointing to and mentally sighed. "Uh sure, I guess..." Taking a seat not to close to him the both of them sat and stared at the sky.

"Now don't go on thinking that sense were watching the sunset together mean that it's a date, cause it's not." She said in a serious tone.

"What?" he started laughing hysterically. "Of course this isn't a date Ino-chan. Why would you think that?"

"I wasn't _thinking _that it was a date. I was saying that this isn't a date."

As the day was ending they started talking about random stuff as they sat and waited for the sun to disappear behind the hills. She started asking him about all the different pranks he had pulled off back when they were in the academy, she would laugh at him as he would act out his victims reactions, and act impressed when ever he went into great detail about how he had planed and set up the prank. Her favorite one was the one where he said he used the Sexy Transformation Technique on the Hokage and made his nose trickle with blood.

Finishing his last prankster story they both sat and laughed. She found herself enjoying this time with the hyper active ninja, she couldn't remember a time where she had laughed so much in one night that it made her stomach hurt.

"Ah look at that." said Naruto who was looking off into the distance at the sunset.

Instead of looking at the sunset like he was she was staring off into his blue azure colored eyes. A feeling she had never felt before started to build up in her stomach.

Naruto noticed her staring at him and looked at her. "What? Is there some thing on my face?" he asked curiously as he wiped his face wit his sleeve.

Ino, embarrassed that he had caught her staring at him, blushed furiously.

"You have a fever or something Ino-chan? Your cheeks have been red all day."  
"Uh yea," she took her perfect moment to lie without hesitation, "yea I've had a fever for a while now." she lied. To make it seem like she was actually sick she threw in a few coughs and got up and got her basket full of Dahlia's.

"You should go home then, your only gonna get sicker out here." he said now getting up too.

"Yea I think ima do that." she said throwing in a cough. "Well Ima go ahead first since it would be a little weird for people seeing us walking back into the village together. They might get the wrong idea."

"I guess so." he said shrugging. "Later Ino-chan."

She simply waved a small good bye and started off towards the village gates. She sighed heavily as her mind was racing with thoughts and these strange new feelings she was feeling. _God what a weird day. I need to get some sleep. _Her stomach let out a small lurching growl as she walked through the gates._ I need to stop by Choji's house._

**A/N:** So at first I had this planed out to be a One Shot with a bit more romance involved, but as I continued with it I saw that I could maybe do something with this. So I dunno I guess it depends if you guys like it or not. By the way this is my first crack at a romance thing, so go ahead and spear me if you want. Sorry if I went too OOC.


End file.
